Republicans Cut FEMA 43% In Last Two Years

So House Republicans put our government on the brink of default in order to get budget cuts for programs that help ordinary Americans, FEMA being one of them and now in the spotlight as Hurricane Sandy wreaks its havoc. (They are all wet and frothy on increasing defense spending, though.) It's quite amusing to see grand stander in chief, Republican Governor Christie, saying he needs substantial federal dollars to pay for storm damage. Christie has been one of the prime grand standers in refusing federal money for project that would help his state. Mitt Romney will now come out and say he never said he would dismantle FEMA, which he most certainly did say. Romney would turn disaster relief back on the states, which would leave Gov. Christie twisting in the wind. It would take a very stout pole to do that, given his substantial heft. Perhaps he can help pay for his state's disaser needs by trimming his food budget?

Over the last two years, Congressional Republicans have forced a 43 percent reduction in the primary FEMA grants that pay for disaster preparedness. Representatives Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and other House Republicans have repeatedly tried to refuse FEMA’s budget requests when disasters are more expensive than predicted, or have demanded that other valuable programs be cut to pay for them. The Ryan budget, which Mr. Romney praised as “an excellent piece of work,” would result in severe cutbacks to the agency, as would the Republican-instigated sequester, which would cut disaster relief by 8.2 percent on top of earlier reductions.

That and more here.